This is what happens when I am on break from school bored, and taking some time to work on my wheels. I'll update this DIY as I make progress. Sources for some information can be found at the bottom of the DIY

First what is the difference between RS's and RM's you ask?

The BBS RM is a cast 2-piece wheel. The two pieces consist of the outer "lip" and "rim (barrel and center)." They are 15" in diameter and have 30 bolts that thread into the barrel. The center cap is plastic and snaps in. These wheels were available on the '91-92 16v GTIs.

The BBS RS is a forged 3-piece wheel that consists of an outer "lip" , "center" and "barrel". The center cap is aluminum and threaded, attaches by threading into the center section of the wheel. These also weigh in at only 15 pounds each. The bolts on a BBS RS are slightly longer and go through the lip, center, and barrel then are fastened with a nut. The amount of bolts per wheel is dependent on the diameter of the wheel, since we will be working with a 16" diameter wheel we will have 34 bolts and nuts per wheel.

Now on to rebuilding

1.Locate and purchase your wheels,Thanks Katya for giving me a reliable affordable website to place my order with.

3.To begin separating the wheels, you will need the following. -3/8 drive socket wrench-8mm 12 pt. socket.-small extension-10mm wrench-rubber malletBegin removing the 34 bolts per wheel, the front face of the wheel has the 8mm bolts on them, and on the inside of the barrel you will locate the 10mm 12pt nuts to secure your wrench and prevent rotating.

Some of the sealant gets onto the shaft of the bolts, and makes for a hard separation, I would recommend breaking the sealant free by rotating the 8mm bolts before trying to remove them.

3.Now on to splitting the wheels, now i have looked at numerous BBS rebuild threads, and they all told me the same thing, scrape off the visible sealant with a putty knife and then tap the wheel to separate the pieces... they never separate.

The above mentioned method sucks, here is what I did.

-Preheat your oven to 350 degrees-Remove center cap-Throw the entire wheel in and set your timer to 5 minutes.Now PLEASE DON'T BE AN IDIOT. Use oven mits the wheel is warm.

4.Marking the wheel to show where they were originally set wouldn't be a bad idea right now.

5.Now to remove the outer lip you do this by tapping the wheel at the bottom most point of the lip as seen in the picture below. It should pop off with a few light taps.

5.Next to remove the center tap the back of the center that would mount flush to the hub, I would tap it next to the mounting surface as to not damage the flat surface as seen in the below picture.

Check it out you have them all apart!

6.Now remove all the left over sealant

7.Now that you have all of your wheels disassembled and clean you have to decide what it is exactly that you want to do.

In my case i planned on cleaning up 2 of the original (1") lips and purchasing 2 wider (2") lips.

8.So my next step was going to be re-polishing 2 of my (1") lips. You will need:-aircraft stripper-sand paper-wd-40-never dull -mothers metal polish

9.Spray down the lips to be polished with some aircraft stripper.This may take a few coats to remove all the clear, BBS did a great job protecting their wheels.

10.Now on to the sanding!In my case I started with 400 grit since my lips were in pretty good shape to begin with and had no curbage. If your wheels have been crubbed you will need to have them repaired.

You can follow the polishing guide found here: (Peteys Polishing (Ghetto 8v))[url="http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=547333"]http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=547333"]http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=547333"]http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=547333[/url]

Here is a before picture of the lipand a finished picture

9.Follow the same procedure when polishing the hex caps here is how to remove the hex from the center cap, (The BBS logo cap just snaps in place. so just unclip it and push to remove.)-Remove the snap ring on the back of the center cap as seen in the below picture.Then the center caps will separate.

Heres a shot after the polishing on the hex caps.

10.Oh look what just came in from tunershop! My lips!Thanks for the free euro plate guys.

Test fit of the new lips.

11.Either clean or send out your centers for paint or powdercoat, I chose Powder Pro in new bedford, MA and brought a windsor gas cap with me, so he could match the color.(pics on return)

12.Bolts came In! Test fit!

13.Now while your waiting on your centers to come back from powder or paint, You can use this time to clean the barrels. I used-Red Brake Cleaner-Scuff Pad-Elbow Grease

Here is a shot of one all clean.

14.Now on to resealing the wheels

14 a. Clean the mating surfaces with laquer thinner and let dry.14 b. Bolt the two shells together "DRY" and torque to spec. using a small drop of blue loctite per boltI prefer the blue loctite gel because it doesn't drip all over your pretty wheels (one tube of the gel does the trick for all 4 wheels)

Also, to protect the head of your new shiny bolts, I recommend putting some saran wrap around the head of the bolts before putting the socket on it.

14 c. Lay thin bead of silicone in the crack between the mating surfaces and smooth. Let it dry overnight.14 d. Re-apply a bead over the first and smooth out to about a 1.0" bead width and smooth.

If you follow this procedure your wheels will never leak. The reason you don't want silicone between the halves is because all silicone shrinks as it cures. As is shrinks the pressure between the shells changes and your torque changes. BBS use a different system. I wouldn't worry about how the silicone looks. Once you put a tire on you cant see it anyway. The last thing you want is to be driving down the road and get a flat because you didn't use enough sealant. Kodiak suggests to all of their customers that they recheck the torque after you run the wheels for the first time. Just make a few turns each way and quickly recheck (just check don't tighten more).

One recommended product for sealing wheel halves is called Toyota Seal 102 also known as FIPG or as it sounds "Fipige." It is only available at the dealer, 3 oz. cost near 15 dollars (10.00 if louie is nice to you), no silicone in it, I believe, but it will seal almost unsealable things.Thanks Louie! Generally, and good quality RTV silicone sealant will work perfectly, though. Dow Corning 832 Multi Surface Adhesive Sealant was also recommended. Kinesis Motorsports also recommends a sealant called, Shin-Etsu Silicone (1 Component RTV). This is available from Kinesis Motorsports directly.

13.Now while your waiting on your centers to come back from powder or paint, You can use this time to clean the barrels. I used-Red Brake Cleaner-Scuff Pad-Elbow Grease

Here is a shot of one all clean.

I have some 3 piece Racing Hart Type C's. I want to clean the inside of my Barrels without taking them apart. I do not want to harm the finish of the lips or face. The inside of the barrels appear to be painted or powder coated like yours do. Will these cleaning products be safe to use? If not, What could I use to make them shine? Thanks.

Sorry for the old thread revive, but I just wanted to say this thread helped me in a huge way with my first split and rebuild of RS's, so thanks!! I'll be doing another set of 3 piece wheels in a few months as I enjoyed doing the BBS so much....painful and tedious disassembly and reassembly, but fun none-the-less!

I'm getting bolts copper plated and I want to do the hex nut copper plated too but I'm scared to try to remove the plastic threads if it's sealed with a strong adhesive. any advice? never mind i got a screwdriver and popped them off.

Ok so step 14c now on BBS RM is it bad if you dont do that step since its 2piece wheel or do i need to go back and redo it again since i looked that part over by mistake??? please let me know asapbut besides my mistake your info was very very helpful thank you soooo much